Aspen Museums and Galleries

This sleek gallery space is a mecca of contemporary art in the mountains. The international collection showcases works primarily from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Expect pieces from artists such as Matisse, Pisarro, and Keith Haring. Recent exhibits include New Orleans–based former biologist Allison Stewart, whose work explores our environment’s fragility, and Brazilian multimedia artist Vik Muniz.

In collaboration with renowned architect Annabelle Selldorf (the designer behind Hauser & Wirth, the Neue Galerie, and currently The Frick renovation), New York gallerist Marianne Boesky has converted an old 19th-century cabin into what’s now Boesky West.

Hunter S. Thompson lived on a ranch outside Aspen for more than four decades, and his legacy here is strong. Catch a local after a few drinks, and they’re likely to entertain you with stories of his antics around the town—he famously ran for town sheriff on a platform of drug legalization, centering the headquarters for the campaign at J-Bar at the Hotel Jerome. This accessible art gallery is just as Thompson would have wanted it (a.k.a. not too fussy), and you’ll find plenty of photography, prints, posters, and other artwork from Thompson and peers of the likes of William S. Burroughs, Thomas W. Benton, and more.

Many of the country's most prominent collectors house their collections in their Aspen homes, so the town has always been a hot spot for contemporary art. Thanks to the support of that impressive group of benefactors, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the quality of this tiny but sophisticated art museum has always been disproportionate to the size (and isolation) of the town it inhabits. Ambitious Director Heidi Zuckerman opened the museum's flashy new Shigeru Ban-designed building back in 2014, tripling the size of the exhibition space and bringing the location directly into the center of town. She brings in some of the world's best contemporary artists for group and solo exhibitions year-round.